Update 1.53 "Firestorm"

Update 1.53 "Firestorm"(changelog) was introduced on 6 November 2015. The update is distinguished for moving the game to the Dagor Engine 4.0, which included Physically Based Rendering (PBR), Destructible buildings, and new wave effects. It also introduced over 20 new vehicles, including the first premium British Tanks (full tree added in Update 1.55 "Royal Armour").

Game mechanics

In SB ground vehicles, the gunner view is now situated where the sight was physically mounted on specific ground vehicles.

New mechanism for measuring target distance for RB and SB game modes with new modification “rangefinder” which has been added for ground vehicles that were equipped with a mounted range finder.

Added new award “Vehicle for rent” in battle trophies.

The ingame chat has been changed. General channels have been removed. The ability to create public and private channels has been added.

Added experimental voice chat support for Linux and Mac.

In combined ground vehicle realistic battles, new special markers have been added. The marker will be visible for ground forces above the point where the shot was fired and will not move if the enemy moves.

A pilot may lose control of the aircraft if maximum G is exceeded. The amount of G and time during which the pilot still has control over the aircraft depend on the skill of the pilot.

Fuse settings have been changed. In all game modes “attacker” fuse has been implemented. Time ticks down once the bomb is dropped (time is shown in pop-up tip - it’s 5 seconds). For the fuses with permanent delay (time ticks down when the bomb hits the obstacle) minimum setting is 5 seconds.

Dropping bombs from the He 111 has been fixed. Now the bombs don’t fall out from the back of fuselage, but strictly from the bomb bay.

Maximum zoom for optics and binocular has been changed: For tank optics from 7.5x to x3.5 and for binoculars from x9 to x6. This represents the most popular setting for tank optics in the 1930s-50s. In the future, these values will be set to historically accurate values for individual vehicle optics.

Changes in Ground Vehicles

The maximum speed of the T-44 has been reduced to 60 km/h, according to “Guide to exploitation of T-44” NKO USSR 1946, page 5.

New modification/module “Rangefinder” added for M103, M47, M60, Leopard I, SU-122-54, Panther F, Panther 2 and Tiger 2 10,5cm. This will allow the measurement of range of up to a distance of 2.5km in realistic battles and 1.5 km in arcade battles.

T-34 Prototype - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34”.

T-34 1940 with L-11 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34”

T-34 1942 and T-34-57 1943 - The weight of the tank was changed to 30t, in according to“Tank T-34. Manual. 1944.”

Т-34E STZ - The weight of the tank was changed to 29.5t, in according to “Front illustration №04 2006. Stalingrad's 34 p. 42” (mass of the screens - 500kg).

T-34E - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.6t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”. (Weight of Т-34 1941 with F-34 cannon + maximum mass of screens - 2.5t).

Т-34-85 with D-5T cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.9t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.

T-34-85 with ZIS-S-53 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 32t, in according to “Guide to the material part of T-34”, Moscow 1949.

Interface

New battle statistics interface

New daily rewards interface

New crew skill interface

The amount of explosives contained in a shell has been added to the info card for ground vehicles

The possibility to save the last played mission in “Custom Battles” has been added.

In spectator mode, lighting circuits for allied vehicles have been added.

"Visibility" added to info card of a vehicle. This parameter defines tank visibility from distance depending on its height.

Control

Added new settings regarding “switching between gunners”, which allows the turning off of AI gunners in aircraft.

The ability to control the camera in the hangar with a gamepad has been fixed. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “View controls” - “View in hangar”.

The possibility to control the position of decals on ground vehicles and aircraft while using a gamepad has been corrected. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “Miscellaneous” - “Decal movement”.

By default, a right mouse click is now mapped to activating the “follow target” mode and not for zoom in the scope. By pressing the button the gunner will hold the nearest target in scope view.

Increased boosts for all ground vehicle engines in Arcade. The average increase is 10%.

A bug where modifications that affected a ground vehicle’s mobility might not apply has been fixed.

T-10M model has been updated. New visual geometry and a more refined armour model has been introduced, as well as a new arrangement of components and modules.

Anti-aircraft guns have been added for the Т32, М46 and М47 (You will be able to use these in PvP matches in a future update).

A bug with the M4A3E2 (and the 76mm cannon version), where, if the additional 38mm upper frontal armour was penetrated, but the main armour wasn’t, the tank could have been rendered inoperable, has been fixed.

A bug which occurred during automatic track repair, where the turning of the vehicle was blocked, has been fixed.

A bug which would cause a repair time that was too long, after one or more crew members were rendered unconscious, has been fixed.

A visual bug which incorrectly showed an overload effect (incorrect dimming) has been fixed.

Do 17-Z-2: A bug which prohibited the research of a modification for the last bomb configuration has been fixed

BTD-1: the "Improved torpedo” modification has been returned.

In Simulator Battles, reloading of turret mounted defensive weaponry is now possible only at airfields (automatic prohibition of firing for gunners can be located in: Menu > Controls > Basic > Toggle Gunners.

Interface:

Errors in the interface and ground vehicle’s info card where effects of the modifications were not displayed correctly have been fixed. Mistake where engine power in AB was displayed incorrectly (showing less power than actually available in game) has been fixed.

“Agility” skill in tank crew skill tab has been moved up to other “group” skills.

Numerous interface improvements.

Missions and locations:

A bug in the model of destroyed tanks has been fixed (turret was displayed somewhat above the hull).

Numerous changes in the descriptions of ground and aircraft missions before a battle.

New objectives added for combined battles.

Balance changes on “Ash river” and’ “Advance to the Rhine”.

Misc:

Optimization and client stability has been improved.

Added restriction mechanics to aircraft overload levels in Realistic Battles. For the first three seconds of flight, the instructor will limit the exit out of the overload situation, which may otherwise destroy the aircraft through the wings becoming detached.

Trophies update: A player can now receive 2x back-ups for one of the vehicles used in the most recent battle in a trophy.

The cost of the basic level qualification for premium vehicles has been reduced to 10,000 Silver Lions for all the vehicles where it would have previously cost more. The expert qualification cost for these vehicles has been increased accordingly.

The minimal progress needed for crew progression is now only half of the “progress bar” as opposed to a full progress bar.